The feds are using the fact health care in Canada is free to try and lure immigrants to come to the country.The Department of Immigration has launched an international marketing campaign promoting Canada’s public health care.One social media post read: “Thinking about moving to Canada? Did you know Canada has public health care?”The ad campaign comes as Parliament will, for the first time, examine how federal immigration policy is affecting Canada’s health care system after MPs on the Commons health committee voted unanimously to launch a formal study.The motion, introduced by Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Riding Mountain, Man.), calls for ministers of Health and Immigration to testify on whether the Liberals’ immigration targets are worsening the strain on medicare. Blacklock's Reporter says a report to the House of Commons is expected in 2026.“Canadians are paying the price for the Liberals’ out-of-control immigration policies,” Mazier told Parliament. “Immigration is important, but the government must have control over it. Right now, they have zero control.”The Department of Immigration’s latest plan set annual quotas at 395,000 new permanent residents this year and 471,550 in 2024. Those numbers exclude more than 3 million temporary residents, including foreign students and migrant workers..Mazier argued that immigration should be tied to Canada’s capacity to provide essentials such as housing, health care, and jobs. “It is wrong to set immigrants up for failure in a country that does not have the capacity to support them,” he said. “Last year the Liberals brought in nearly half a million permanent immigrants, while 6.5 million Canadians still don’t have a family doctor.”.Recent focus groups commissioned by the Privy Council suggest growing concern among Canadians that Ottawa’s immigration levels are unsustainable. Participants said the system was “overburdened” and that communities lacked housing, infrastructure, and medical services to handle the influx.“Many were of the impression it had become increasingly strained,” said the report Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views. “There had not been sufficient preparation to ensure service capacity in areas such as health care and education.”Mazier said the upcoming hearings will finally force cabinet to account for how its immigration targets are affecting Canadians’ access to basic health services.
